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Haddock Stuffed and Baked

A whole haddock stuffed with breadcrumb mixture, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Haddock Stuffed and Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Clean the haddock, removing scales and eyes, and wipe it dry.

Stuff and shape

  1. Make stuffing by mixing breadcrumbs, clarified fat, nutmeg, lemon rind, and parsley.

  2. Bind the mixture with egg yolk or milk and stuff it into the fish.

  3. Sew the opening closed with a needle and string, shaping the fish into an 'S'.

  4. Place the fish on a greased baking sheet.

  5. Brush the fish with egg or milk and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks into tender, flaky flesh.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body, and brown to a crisp top.
Clarified fat
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and carries flavour.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing together and sets when heated, holding its shape.

The step that matters

Checking that the fish is cooked through. Fish proteins tighten and dry out quickly once they pass doneness, so pulling it from the oven at the right moment keeps the flesh moist and flaky.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, lemon, parsley, egg):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, lemon, parsley, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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